HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania is pledging in a federal court settlement approved Wednesday to broaden services for mentally ill defendants to avoid stays of hundreds of days in jail or restrictive hospital units while they wait for an assessment by doctors or a better treatment setting.

The state’s commitments were made in an agreement approved by U.S. District Judge Sylvia Rambo on Wednesday to settle a federal lawsuit accusing it of violating the rights of mentally ill defendants. The lawsuit, filed last October, said Pennsylvania’s year-plus wait times in jail or restrictive hospital units are the nation’s longest.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Arnold & Porter law firm in Washington, D.C., filed the case on behalf of 11 defendants, and said most of them have no family or friends, are poor and unable to challenge their imprisonment. Some of the mentally ill defendants were accused of petty crimes and spent longer in jail waiting for an assessment than a guilty verdict would have required, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit initially had sought a court order forcing Pennsylvania to move mentally ill defendants to a state hospital within seven days of a judge’s determination that they are incompetent to stand trial.

Federal courts have ruled that delays of more than seven days from the court’s commitment order to hospitalization for treatment are unconstitutional, the initial lawsuit said.

If the sides cannot agree in the next three months on a maximum allowable wait time, then the plaintiffs’ lawyers will ask the court to settle it, said Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU’s Pennsylvania chapter.

In the settlement, the state Department of Human Services pledged more money, more rehabilitation services and faster assessments. Within three months, the state is to provide at least $1 million to create treatment openings in Philadelphia. Plaintiffs’ lawyers said they believe that will result in at least 50 openings at places like behavioral health treatment centers.